Various types of medical implants are currently available for supporting biological structures, delivering medication, causing certain reactions in the body, or monitoring body functions, for example, stents, subcutaneous drug delivery systems, fallopian tube inserts, intrauterine drug delivery systems (IUS), and intrauterine devices (IUDs). In the present description, the term “implant” is thus, for sake of clarity and conciseness, used to encompass devices that are implanted in a surgical procedure (such as stents), devices that are implanted using a needle (such as subcutaneous implants) as well as devices that are inserted to a body cavity using an inserter (such as intrauterine system).
An inserter may be used to properly position the medical implant within the body. The inserter may generally include a handle and an insertion tube connected to the handle with a mechanism for grasping and manipulating the medical implant while it is being inserted into the body. When inserting an IUS or IUD, a sound, or alternately, an endometrial aspirator, may be used to measure the direction and length of the cervical canal and uterus. The inserter is then positioned in the body at a distance based on the measurement and the IUS or IUD is inserted.
After being placed in the body, a medical implant is generally inconspicuous and not externally visible, and a patient may have no further indication of the presence of the medical implant, making it difficult for the patient to remember the existence of the medical implant, and making the medical implant difficult to later identify as to type or function. Furthermore, the measurement and insertion operations are performed using tactile feedback without any ability to view the operations as they occur inside the body. Still further, after placement, ultrasound and other imaging techniques requiring expensive and non-portable equipment are used to monitor the location of medical implant devices to make sure they remain in the proper position.
Recent advances in sensor, electronics, and power source miniaturization have resulted in a proliferation of devices with communication facilities and with monitoring capabilities. In addition, the ability to write applications for mobile devices has resulted in the ability to add monitoring facilities to computing or communication devices already being carried by individuals, for example, smart phones, tablet computers, or laptops. It would be useful to be able to take advantage of these technological advances for identifying a specific medical implant among other similar medical implants with a quick and reliable technique. It would also be useful to be able to take advantage of these technological advances when inserting, and subsequently locating medical implants and for providing a wider scope of available information related to medical implants when in situ.